Tips for making cord flares into skirts?

I custom made a pair of flare cords for my best friend a couple years back. This summer she gave them back to me to sell on ebay. She is only 4' 11" and weighed 150 lbs. The waist is 36". But the inseam length is only 26". I inserted 3 dancing bears on cord patches on each side of the legs from the knee down. She is down to 108 lbs now and wears an 8/10. I told her I couldn't take that much out of them to make them fit. Last night I was thinkin that maybe I could make a skirt out of them. What a cool xmas gift it would be. I've never done one tho. I'm thinkin I'll have to carefully remove the back pockets. How do I shrink this down to her size? She has a chain of dancing bears tatooed around her ankle so I know it really hurt to give up her fave pants. Anyone have any tips before I attempt this? If I take an inch out down the center of each pant leg, remove back pockets and take an inch out of the back center of each side that would be 4". Any tips for getting the front to lay flat below the zipper? I know I'll have to fill in with patchwork at the front and back. Any tips at all would be grately appreciated!

 

There are lots of instructions for making pants into skirts online. Try googling "making pants into skirts" or something similar. I found some pretty good tips on about.com.

 

wow, that sounds really difficult to make them small enough. i don't have any tips. i think i would just take off the patches and put them on something else, or maybe take the old pants and cut them up to make a skirt out of them

 

Thanks for the help. I decided to do it anyway as they were a high rise. Here's the pic of the fix with added pocket. I put 2 darts in waist I'm leaving before I wash them to see if they need removed or 2 more added.Still may take a little more through the inside seam tho.

 

to trim the waist you want to cut up the sides, not the inseam. then to make the skirt you want to cut up the inseam. those are nice pants though, im sure if your careful enough you wont damage your previous work.

 

I took them in at the inseams to make the mid section fit like low rise hipsters instead of the high waisted pants they were. By doing that it took a good 2" off the waist. If I'd have taken the sides in I've had lost the pockets that were already there and had no way of not disturbing the patchwork since the thighs were way big. I still have 1/2" to play with once she tries them on if they're still too big in the legs. Even doing that the rise is still 10" from the top of the waistband to the crotch and some lowrise can be 7 to 9". I'm glad they started out as high rise and her belly at the time took in the space. Now she'll be able to show off her new figure with some new recycled AGAIN hip pants and I hope she stays at the weight she's at.

 

Those are really nice. She's going to be stoked.